Well. Actually. Dont try to take a bite. The panel tastes kinda wooden.

A picture of an apple is not an apple. The concept of a thing, the word meaning a thing is not the thing. But still the apple is a reality and the picture is another(!) reality. And we haven´t even touched the concept of truth here, which goes way beyond appearance and is dealing much more with the Möglichkeitsfeld (the word-by-word translation is "field of possibilities" which doesn´t feel right, sorry there is a limit of my english) of contents. Although the picture is meant as a realistic depiction (which is, funny enough, often perceived as "true"), I doubt, that, looking attentively at it, "apple" is the only thought that crosses the mind. Showing something always links to something behind the shown. Thats why representational art is so complex. Because in being representational, art is in its concept abstract.

Ehm.

To boil it down to something digestable: By showing an apple, you never mean just an apple. Moreover any thought beyond that. And that is abstraction.But by showing a black square, you mean a black square. And by showing a certain blue, you mean that certain blue. And that is conceptually represetational.

We used to laugh a lot about this phenomenon at the academy. But my experience is that the sense of irony of abstract painters is different...------------------------------Eine Schicht coelinblau im Hintergrund, der wärmere Ton des Apfels ist aus Permanentgelb,Igrazinrot und Coelinblau gemischt, mit hohen Gelbanteilen.--++--A layer of coelin-blue is applied on the background, the warmer tone of the apple is made of premanent-yellow, igrazine-red and coelin-blue, with much yellow added in the colour mixes.

Yes, you make sense. To be honest. I don´t know, why and how it works in technological detail, but it has something to do with the eggtempera colours being translucent. So what you do in the beginning has effect on what you do in the end. No matter how radical the changes are in between. And every change leaves its mark. I simply learned it this way, without explanation how it actually works. So what I said above is my speculation. But I´m certain that it is true.